Modern Rooms behind historical facades – Drone recordings of the Kolk

In October of 2021, the former Puppet Theatre of Lübeck (Kolk 20/22) had it’s internal structure removed with the help of a crane leaving only the bare outside walls.  Inside, a ‘house within a house’ will be built within which, new exhibition rooms will be built to the current museum standards.  In this way Kolk17 hopes to achieve parity; fulfilling the requirements of renovation work for listed buildings while meeting the exacting demands of modern museums and theatres in one.  This is how, in the middle of the medieval island town of Lübeck, a UNESCO world heritage site, modern rooms will be built.
At the beginning of the 1970’s the building was thoroughly renovated which is why the interior of the buildings do not fall under protected status.  Historically speaking the exterior walls and the striking gable covering the staircase which are ca. 400 years old are of great interest.  The integrity of these structural components must be preserved.  This is why the renovation work on the building site had to be undertaken from the roof down.  Pieces of the interior substance of the building were removed by hand and then placed in a container which was then winched away by crane.  This also solved the problem of how to remove the rubble since the ancient street is not wide enough for large trucks.
The high, stepped gable which can also be seen from the churchyard of St. Peters has been stabilised throughout the process with scaffolding, holding the exterior walls in place is a corset like device made of steel.  Apart from this the builders crushed the steel/concrete ceiling of the first floor, further reducing the noise pollution and easier transportation of the rubble.

 We have followed this unusual and exciting phase of construction with a drone